Family unveil memorial stone to HMS Scourge veteran

(l-r) Veteran of HMS Scourge, Ken Mabey, with Angela Swift and her husband Raymond Swift and the memorial stone at Alver Stones in Portsmouth.

PEOPLE gathered in Normandy for a ceremony to unveil a new memorial stone in memory of a veteran from Lovedean.

Around 800 people were at the service on Sword beach in Luc-ser-mer where the stone was unveiled on Saturday.

Costing £3,500, it was unveiled in memory of Billy Swift who was a gunner on board HMS Scourge with the 23rd destroyer flotilla.

The money was raised through donations from local businesses and veterans.

His grandaughter Georgia Swift, 37, from Winter Road in Southsea, was in France for the ceremony with her parents. She said her grandfather, who died six years ago at the age of 85, would have been pleased.

‘He would be over the moon,’ she said.

‘He would have been very proud. He was proud to have been a part of D-Day.

‘There were three generations of our family at the service.

‘The French people are so grateful after all these years for what the Allies did.’